Remember Congresswoman Kristi Noem professing that the government is broke and can’t afford more regulation? We do too. That’s why we can’t figure out why she wants U.S. taxpayers to spend $10 million on her bill aimed at “farm dust” – a bill that would in effect regulate farm dust because such regulations currently do not exist. Let us repeat: regulations by the EPA on farm dust DO NOT EXIST.
Now, you don’t just have to take our word for it. The President of the United States (you know, the one in charge) has never created regulations on farm dust, nor are there plans to. In fact, President Obama’s predecessors, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush all determined that when it comes to “farm” dust, there is no such number.
Which brings us back to Kristi Noem – what does she know that Ronald Reagan didn’t in 1987 when he put the existing coarse particulate standard into effect? We’ll give you a hint: it involves some not-so-secret santas and some very special interests.
You see, Kristi Noem has bills to pay. She also has little to show for all of her time interning in Washington. That’s where her friends come in: those in the mining and industrial industries have mighty big pocketbooks, and can see Ms. Noem has gotten in a bit over her head in this whole representing-the-people thing.
Back here in South Dakota, we’re not that into make-believe. We’re into real solutions to real problems. Making up a problem just so you can make up a solution doesn’t help anyone – and it certainly doesn’t justify spending $10,000,000 (the amount the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says taxpayers will pay for regulating nonexistent regulations).
Declaring war on Tinkerbelle may anger Santa Clause, but we need more than that from our voice in Congress. We need someone we can believe in – and Kristi Noem has proven she is more into special interests’ make-believe than middle-class families yearning for their next paycheck. It’s time to send Noem home.